1925 Bulgarian State Football Championship

The 1925 Bulgarian State Football Championship was the second edition of the competition. It was contested by 6 teams, and Vladislav Varna won the championship by beating Levski Sofia 2–0 in the finals, they became the first football champions of Bulgaria.

1.
SC Vladislav Varna
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SC Vladislav is a football club from Varna, Bulgaria. During its history, Vladislav has won the Bulgarian Football Championship three times, vladislavs first title came at the inaugural championship in 1925 and its last was in 1934. Its official descendant by documents and history is Cherno More Varna, Bulgarian State Football Championship, Winners,1925,1926,1934 Runners-up,1928,1930, 1937–38, 1938–39 Formed on 3 April 1916 as Sport Club Napred. After yearly name changes to SC Razvitie and SC Granit, the club could not register with the Ministry of Interior until 1919 because of bureaucratic obstacles. For this reason, the decided to enlist as a collective member of SC Ticha. The club was known as SC Ticha - branch SC Granit. On the Annual general meeting of SC Ticha in the spring of 1921 a dispute and disagreement over finances broke out which resulted in the split of the club. SC Granit branch and a number of disgruntled SC Ticha members formed SC Vladislav on 1 May 1921 in honour of Władysław III, King of Poland and Hungary, the club was officially registered under its new name on 14 December 1921. The first green-white striped jerseys were sent from Vienna by club members studying in the Austrian capital, on 10 April 1922 the club played its first intercity match away to Levski Sofia and lost 0-5. The return match in Varna ended in a 1-1 draw, later in the year, the newly appointed German coach Ernst Murg kick-started what turned out to be one of the success stories in pre-WWII Bulgarian football. In 1923 Vladislav played matches against other Varna teams and Military ship crews, a 2-0 win against Victoria in Constanta on 23 August followed by a 4-0 win in the return match on 9 October in Varna. In 1924, Vladislav won the first championship of the newly formed Varna Regional League, moreover, the club won twice in a 2 leg friendly against Venus Bucharest on 12 and 30 July and lost against SC Romkomit on 3 August in Bucharest. On 13 and 14 September Vladislav won the first and only edition of the North Bulgarian Sports League after two wins against SK Preslav and SC Oto Gabrovo. The tournament was held in Gabrovo and this semi-final was played in Sofia on 12 October and ended in a 0-0 draw. Due to lack of regulations on how to proceed in a match without a winner. In 1925 the VRL consisted of 5 teams, Vladislav, Shipchenski sokol, Ticha, Diana, Vladislav won 7 matches and drew once to be crowned VRL champions for a second time in 2 years. In the warm-up for the National competition, the defeated an strong AS23 Sofia side. Defeats against Han Omurtag, Asenovec and Levski Dupnica earned the club a place on the match of the competition

2.
PFC Levski Sofia
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PFC Levski Sofia, commonly known as Levski Sofia, is a professional association football club based in Sofia, Bulgaria. The team competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system, Levski have participated in more seasons of the Bulgarian football championship than any other team, and are the only Bulgarian team to have never been relegated. They have won 73 trophies including 26 A Group titles,25 Bulgarian Cups and 3 Super Cups, on an international basis, Levski have reached three European Cup Winners Cup quarter-finals and two UEFA Cup quarter-finals. In 2006-07, they became the first Bulgarian club to reach the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. The teams regular kit colour is all-blue, Levskis home ground is the Vivacom Arena - Georgi Asparuhov Stadium in Sofia, which has a capacity of 25,000 spectators. The clubs biggest rivals are CSKA Sofia, and matches between the two sides are commonly referred to as The Eternal Derby of Bulgaria. Levski is also a member of the European Club Association. Sport Club Levski was founded in 1911 by a group of students at the Second Male High School in Sofia, the clubs name was chosen in honour of the Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski, and the club was officially registered on May 24,1914. In 1914 Levski lost its first official match against FC13 Sofia by 0–2, in that period football wasnt a popular sport in Bulgaria, so there isnt any other information from the period concerning the club. In the summer of 1921, the Sofia Sports League was founded and it united 10 clubs from Sofia, marking the beginning of organized football competitions in the city. The Blues won the first match in the championship for the season 1921–22, held on September 18,1921, Levski captured the first place in the league in 1923 after a dramatic 3–2 win over bitter rival Slavia Sofia and successfully defended the title in the following season. The first National Championship was held in 1924 with Levski representing Sofia, the team went on to win the title in 1933,1937 and 1942, and established itself as the most popular football club in Bulgaria. Levski also became the holder for all times of the Ulpia Serdica Cup by virtue of winning it for the time in a row in 1933. In 1929 Levski became the first semi-professional football club in Bulgaria, after 12 players staged a boycott of the team in demand of financial remuneration, the same year Levski met its first international opponents, losing to Gallipoli Istanbul 0–1 and winning against Kuban Istanbul 6–0. After World War II, Levski became one of the two top clubs in Bulgaria, after winning the championship in 1946,1947,1949,1950 and 1953 Levski would not capture the domestic title again until the mid-1960s. In 1949 the authorities changed the name to Dinamo following the Soviet traditions. The 1960s were marked with return to both on the domestic and on the international stage. The tie against Benfica in the European Cup in 1965 remained memorable for the Eusébio versus Georgi Asparuhov clash, in January 1969 Levski was merged with Spartak Sofia and put under the auspice of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry

3.
Bulgaria
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Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period and its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State, the following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, in December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgarias transition into a democracy and a market-based economy. Bulgarias population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised, most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are industry, power engineering. The countrys current political structure dates to the adoption of a constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative. Human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria can be traced back to the Paleolithic, animal bones incised with man-made markings from Kozarnika cave are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans. Organised prehistoric societies in Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, the latter is credited with inventing gold working and exploitation. Some of these first gold smelters produced the coins, weapons and jewellery of the Varna Necropolis treasure and this site also offers insights for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies. Thracians, one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians, began appearing in the region during the Iron Age. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians conquered most of present-day Bulgaria, and kept it until 479 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the area fell under Byzantine control, by this time, Christianity had already spread in the region. A small Gothic community in Nicopolis ad Istrum produced the first Germanic language book in the 4th century, the first Christian monastery in Europe was established around the same time by Saint Athanasius in central Bulgaria. From the 6th century the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled in the region, in 680 Bulgar tribes under the leadership of Asparukh moved south across the Danube and settled in the area between the lower Danube and the Balkan, establishing their capital at Pliska

4.
POFC Botev Vratsa
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POFC Botev Vratsa, or simply Botev is a Bulgarian association football club based in Vratsa, that competes in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. The club was founded in 1921, Botev Vratsa is one of the most prominent football clubs in Bulgaria, playing its home matches at Hristo Botev Stadium. The teams home stadium was built in 1948 and it is situated in the Hristo Botev sport complex, in the east part of Vratsa. The stadium originally had 32000 seats, after a recent reconstruction, which took place in the first half of 2008 and in 2009, the stadium has 3 reconstructed seated sectors with a total of 6000 seats. Botev Vratsa Football Club was founded in 1921 by Nikola Kunov, Ivan Abuzov, Nako Paunov, Gergo Boytchev, Todor Orozov, Hristo Lighenski, the place of foundation is a playground near the Old market in Vratsa. Between 1921 and 1956 various sport clubs were founded in the city, in 1957 most of the sport clubs in the city are joined together to form FC Botev Vratsa. Between 1957 and 1964 Botev Vratsa is a member of Bulgarian second division, in 1964 the club entered the Bulgarian top division and played there for 26 seasons. The team of Vratsa has 788 games in the top flight of Bulgarian football, botevs most glorious moment came in 1971, when the team finished third in Bulgarian top division, after CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia. Botev did, however, represent Bulgaria in the 1971–72 UEFA Cup where they lost in the first round to Dinamo Zagreb from Croatia 2–8 on aggregate, the first game in Vratsa, in the presence of 35000 spectators, ended with a 2–1 loss. The second game in Zagreb finished 6–1, the biggest success in the Bulgarian Cup is a semi-final in 1960–61, 1974–75 and 1984–85. In 1989–90 Botev was relegated to second division, in the next 19 years the club participated in either the second or the third Bulgarian divisions. Among the clubs legendary players is Martin Petrov, considered by most Botev fans as the greatest player to have ever involved with the club. The list of famous players to have come from the clubs youth system consists of Ilya Valov, Valentin Iliev. Nikolay Penkov is the player with most league appearances for the club –334, the player with most league goals for the club is Georgi Kamenov, with 150 goals for Botev. Botev is known as one of the teams in Bulgaria. Until 1971, the colours were red and black vertical stripes. To commemorate the 50th anniversary, officials decided to re-brand the entire image of Botev by selecting green as main colour from 1972 on. At the same time, the logo was also changed

5.
Yunak Stadium
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Yunak Stadium, was a multi-use stadium in central Sofia, Bulgaria. It was located at the corner of Knyaz Boriss Garden. The pitch was almost exactly square-shaped, with four rows of stands on all sides. The stadium is named after the Yunak sports societies which formed in Bulgaria in the late 19th century, themselves named after the word yunak, in the 1920s–30s, immediately to the northeast of Yunak stadium, was built the smaller Levski Field, the home ground of SK Levski. In the 1950s, the BCP decided to build a new, as the new stadium would infringe on the north-eastern stands of the Yunak stadium, this was also demolished in order to make way for the Vasil Levski National Stadium, opened 1953. The stadium has also used for unorthodox sports, such as live human chess during the reign of Tsar Boris

6.
Sofia
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Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. The city has a population of 1.26 million, while 1.68 million people live in its metropolitan area, the city is located at the foot of Vitosha Mountain in the western part of the country, within less than 50 kilometres drive from the Serbian border. Its location in the centre of the Balkan peninsula means that it is the midway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, whereas the Aegean Sea is the closest to it, Sofia has been an area of human habitation since at least 7000 BC. Being Bulgarias primate city, Sofia is a hometown of many of the local universities, cultural institutions. Sofia is one of the top 10 best places for business in the world. Sofia is Europes most affordable capital to visit as of 2013, for the longest time the city possessed a Thracian name, derived from the tribe Serdi, who were either of Thracian, Celtic, or mixed Thracian-Celtic origin. It seems that the first written mention of Serdica was made during his reign, during the Romans civitas Serdenisium was mentioned the brightest city of the Serdi in official inscriptions. The city was major throughout the past ever since Antiquity, when Roman emperor Constantine the Great referred to it as my Rome, other names given to Sofia, such as Serdonpolis and Triaditza, were mentioned by Byzantine Greek sources or coins. The Slavic name Sredets, which is related to middle and to the citys earliest name, the city was called Atralissa by the Arab traveller Idrisi and Strelisa, Stralitsa or Stralitsion by the Crusaders. The name Sofia comes from the Saint Sofia Church, as opposed to the prevailing Slavic etymology among Bulgarian cities and towns. It is ultimately derived from the Egyptian Kemetic word sbÅ, meaning star, door, teaching and wisdom and this was a tradition of collection of wise literature, shared between Mediterranean cultures, which was called sophia in Greek. In these documents the city is called Sofia, but at the time the region and the citys inhabitants are still called Sredecheski. The city became popular to the Ottomans by the name Sofya. In 1879 there was a dispute about what the name of the new Bulgarian capital should be, the citys name is pronounced by Bulgarians with a stress on the o, in contrast with the tendency of foreigners to place the stress on i. The female given name Sofia is pronounced by Bulgarians with a stress on the i, Sofia has an area of 492 km2, while Sofia City Province has an area of 1344 km2. Sofias development as a significant settlement owes much to its position in the Balkans. It is situated in western Bulgaria, at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the Sofia Valley that is surrounded by the Balkan mountains to the north. The valley has an altitude of 550 metres

7.
Captain (association football)
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The team captain is usually identified by the wearing of an armband. The only official responsibility of a captain specified by the Laws of the Game is to participate in the toss prior to kick-off. Contrary to what is said, captains have no special authority under the Laws to challenge a decision by the referee. However, referees may talk to the captain of a side about the general behaviour when necessary. At an award-giving ceremony after a fixture like a cup competition final, any trophy won by a team will be received by the captain who will also be the first one to hoist it. The captain also generally leads the teams out of the room at the start of the match. The captain generally provides a point for the team, if morale is low. Captains may join the manager in deciding the first team for a certain game, in youth or recreational football, the captain often takes on duties, that would, at a higher level, be delegated to the manager. A club captain is usually appointed for a season, if he is unavailable or not selected for a particular game, then the club vice-captain will be appointed to perform a similar role. The match captain is the first player to lift a trophy should the team win one, a good example of this was in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final when match captain Peter Schmeichel lifted the trophy for Manchester United as club captain Roy Keane was suspended. In the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final, match captain Frank Lampard jointly lifted the trophy for Chelsea with club captain John Terry, a club may appoint two distinct roles, a club captain to represent the players in a public relations role, and correspondent on the pitch. After Neville retired in 2011, regular starter Nemanja Vidić was named as club captain, são Paulos Rogério Ceni is the player who has worn the captains armband the most times. A vice-captain is a player that is expected to captain the side when the captain is not included in the starting eleven, or if, during a game. Examples include Manuel Neuer succeeding Philipp Lahm at Bayern Munich, Marcelo attaining from Sergio Ramos at Real Madrid C. F, gary Cahill being the understudy of John Terry at Chelsea FC and Lionel Messi taking over from Andrés Iniesta at FC Barcelona. Similarly, some clubs also name a 3rd captain to take the role of captain when both the captain and vice-captain are unavailable, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Germany had three captains. Michael Ballack had skippered the team since 2004, including the successful qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup. Lahm ended up becoming the permanent captain of Germany, as Ballack was never called up for the national team

8.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700

9.
Kingdom of Italy
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The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state. Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866, Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations. Fascist Italy is the era of National Fascist Party rule from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as head of government, according to Payne, Fascist regime passed through several relatively distinct phases. The first phase was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, then came the second phase, the construction of the Fascist dictatorship proper from 1925 to 1929. The third phase, with activism, was 1929–34. The war itself was the phase with its disasters and defeats. Italy was allied with Nazi Germany in World War II until 1943 and it switched sides to the Allies after ousting Mussolini and shutting down the Fascist party in areas controlled by the Allied invaders. Shortly after the war, civil discontent led to the referendum of 1946 on whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Italians decided to abandon the monarchy and form the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of Italy claimed all of the territory which is modern-day Italy. The development of the Kingdoms territory progressed under Italian re-unification until 1870, the state for a long period of time did not include Trieste or Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which are in Italy today, and only annexed them in 1919. After the Second World War, the borders of present-day Italy were founded, the Kingdom of Italy was theoretically a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belonged to the monarch, as executed through appointed ministers, two chambers of parliament restricted the monarchs power—an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdoms constitution was the Statuto Albertino, the governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were responsible to the king. However, in practice, it was impossible for an Italian government to stay in office without the support of Parliament, members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected by plurality voting system elections in uninominal districts. A candidate needed the support of 50% of those voting, and of 25% of all enrolled voters, if not all seats were filled on the first ballot, a runoff was held shortly afterwards for the remaining vacancies. After a brief multinominal experimentation in 1882, proportional representation into large, regional, Socialists became the major party, but they were unable to form a government in a parliament split into three different factions, with Christian Populists and classical liberals

10.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed

11.
Bulgarian Republic Football Championship
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The Republic Football Championship was a national football competition in Bulgaria, successor of the State Championship. It was organised for four years between 1945 and 1948. After 1948 it was reorganised as a Republic Football Group, the championship was a knockout tournament featuring clubs that had finished at the top of six regional divisions. These divisions were round-robin tournaments that included clubs from different geographic areas. Notes, Bold indicates Double winners – i. e. League, notes, Italics indicates clubs no longer exist. Bulgarian State Football Championship Bulgarian A Football Group